A field of application for a device of the general type under consideration may be a vehicle brake system in which there is no mechanical coupling between the brake activation pedal and the main brake cylinder of the brake unit. The main characteristic variables for performing closed-loop control of such brake systems form the operating pressures that occur in the hydraulic system, that is, the brake circuits, and that are acquired by pressure sensors and converted into electrical measured values. Control electronics evaluate these measured values together with other sensor signals and generate corresponding actuation signals for an actuator of the brake unit.
In conventional pressure measuring systems, the sensors form part of the respective control electronics and are mechanically and electrically connected to the circuit board thereof. A substantial disadvantage of such devices is that even if only the electronics or only the sensors fail, the electronics and sensors must be jointly replaced in each case, which gives rise to correspondingly high costs.
DE 199 17 941 A1 describes a brake device for a vehicle brake system having a pressure measuring system in which one or more pressure sensors are respectively securely connected to a base housing or hydraulic block that conducts the hydraulic fluid, while the control electronics for evaluating the measured values and generating control signals are divided in each case among the individual pressure sensors in dome-like housings fitted over the pressure sensors. The part of the control electronics that is respectively assigned to a pressure sensor is accommodated in correspondingly configured receptacles of the housings and connected to separate contact faces that are placed in contact with the control electronics, arranged in a punched grill carrier and on which contact springs come to bear when the housings are placed in position.
Although this known arrangement permits the pressure sensor and control electronics to be exchanged separately, it is complicated and expensive in terms of manufacturing and mounting technology, in particular if a multiplicity of pressure sensors are provided, since the parts of the control electronics that are assigned to the pressure sensors are mounted individually in the housings assigned thereto and, in any case, have to be subsequently connected to one another to form an overall control electronics system. In order to avoid loading the control electronics with the pressure forces of the contact springs, the separate contact faces arranged in a punched grill and configured mechanically to absorb the pressure forces are additionally provided, further complicating this arrangement.